Apparatus and method of focusing radio wave energy

This application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0037353 filed on Mar. 25, 2022 with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to technology for focusing radio wave energy, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for focusing radio wave energy, in which, when radio wave energy is focused, an unnecessary focusing point is removed to focus the radio wave energy only at a desired focusing point.

The information disclosed in this section is only to provide background information about the present example embodiments and does not form the related art.

Among age-related diseases in an aging society, refractory diseases such as cancer, degenerative musculoskeletal diseases, and the like are generally treated through invasive treatment methods such as incisional surgery. Since such invasive treatment methods are based on surgical treatment, there is a risk of side effects such as pain, physical burden, and sequelae in all general patients as well as elderly patients.

In order to remedy such disadvantages of invasive treatment methods, non-invasive treatment technology for radiating high-density energy from the outside of a living body to treat a lesion inside the living body is gaining attention.

Such non-invasive treatment methods include radiation/ultrasound treatment, but due to a problem of radiation exposure and a problem of ultrasound being restricted by structures such as bones or by air, a safer non-invasive treatment method using radio wave energy that is not restricted by structures is being researched.

Since non-invasive radio wave energy treatment is technology for treating a lesion by radiating radio waves from the outside of a living body and applying heat to the lesion, the key is to correctly transmit radio wave energy to a target lesion. However, when a large amount of radio wave energy is also transmitted to an undesired area other than the lesion during the transmission of radio wave energy, a problem of adversely affecting a normal area occurs.

In order to solve the above problems, in an existing method, a temperature monitoring device and a cooling device for cooling are required, or a medical professional monitors a system at all times during treatment and stops the system when a problem occurs and performs work of re-operating the system after a certain period of time.

Accordingly, example embodiments of the present disclosure are provided to substantially obviate one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and apparatus for focusing radio wave energy in which an unnecessary focusing point is removed such that radio waves are not focused at a point other than a focusing target point.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a method of optimizing a focusing parameter in which a process of removing an unnecessary focusing point is repeatedly performed such that radio waves are not focused at a point other than a focusing target point.

According to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of focusing radio wave energy at a focusing target point, which is performed by a processor, may comprise: generating an electromagnetic numerical model of an object including the focusing target point; predicting radio wave focusing points inside the object using radio wave characteristic information of a radio wave radiation module and the electromagnetic numerical model; optimizing one or more focusing parameters such that radio wave energy reaching one or more unnecessary focusing points other than the focusing target point among the radio wave focusing points inside the object is reduced; and radiating radio waves based on the optimized focusing parameters.

The electromagnetic numerical model may be generated using an internal tomography image of the object.

The generating of the electromagnetic numerical model may further include a preliminary measurement operation of acquiring information about permittivity, conductivity, and/or impedance of the object using the radio waves to be radiated; and the electromagnetic numerical model may be generated based on a result of the preliminary measurement operation.

A magnitude and a phase of the radio waves may be adjusted using the optimized focusing parameters.

The optimizing of the focusing parameters may include: operation (a) of extracting the unnecessary focusing points inside the object based on a first focusing parameter; operation (b) of calculating a second focusing parameter for reducing the radio wave energy focused on the extracted unnecessary focusing points; operation (c) of predicting the radio wave focusing points inside the object based on the second focusing parameter; and an operation of repeatedly performing operations (a) to (c) before the unnecessary focusing points are not be extracted.

The unnecessary focusing points may be points having an intermediate value among points in the object at which the radio wave energy is focused to exceed a certain threshold value.

The calculating of the second focusing parameter may further include: calculating a parameter having a reverse phase of the radio wave energy focused at the unnecessary focusing points; and combining the first focusing parameter and the parameter having the reverse phase.

The parameter having the reverse phase at the unnecessary focusing points may be orthogonal to an electromagnetic characteristic value at the focusing target point.

According to a second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, an apparatus for focusing radio wave energy may comprise: a memory in which one or more instructions are stored; and a processor configured to execute the one or more instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor configured to execute the one or more instructions performs: an operation of generating an electromagnetic numerical model of an object including a focusing target point; an operation of predicting radio wave focusing points inside the object using radio wave characteristic information of a radio wave radiation module and the electromagnetic numerical model: an operation of optimizing one or more focusing parameters such that radio wave energy reaching one or more unnecessary focusing points other than the focusing target point among the radio wave focusing points inside the object is reduced; and an operation of radiating radio waves based on the optimized focusing parameters.

The electromagnetic numerical model may be generated using an internal tomography image of the object.

The operation of, by the processor, generating the electromagnetic numerical model further may include a preliminary measurement operation of acquiring information about permittivity, conductivity, and/or impedance of the object using the radio waves to be radiated; and the electromagnetic numerical model may be generated based on a result of the preliminary measurement operation.

A magnitude and a phase of the radio waves may be adjusted using the optimized focusing parameters.

The operation of, by the processor, optimizing the focusing parameters may include: operation (a) of extracting the unnecessary focusing points inside the object based on a first focusing parameter; operation (b) of calculating a second focusing parameter for reducing the radio wave energy focused on the extracted unnecessary focusing points; operation (c) of predicting the radio wave focusing points inside the object based on the second focusing parameter; and an operation of repeatedly performing operations (a) to (c) before the unnecessary focusing points are not be extracted.

The unnecessary focusing points may be points having an intermediate value among points in the object at which the radio wave energy is focused to exceed a certain threshold value.

The operation of, by the processor, calculating the second focusing parameter may further include: calculating a parameter having a reverse phase of the radio wave energy focused at the unnecessary focusing points; and combining the first focusing parameter and the parameter having the reverse phase.

The parameter having the reverse phase at the unnecessary focusing points may be orthogonal to an electromagnetic characteristic value at the focusing target point.

According to a third exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of optimizing one or more focusing parameters, which is executed by a processor, may comprise: operation (a) of extracting one or more unnecessary focusing points inside an object including a focusing target point based on a first focusing parameter; operation (b) of calculating a second focusing parameter for reducing radio wave energy focused on the extracted unnecessary focusing points; operation (c) of predicting one or more radio wave focusing points inside the object based on the second focusing parameter; an operation of repeatedly performing operations (a) to (c) before the unnecessary focusing points may not be extracted; and an operation of outputting the second focusing parameter in which the unnecessary focusing points are not extracted.

The unnecessary focusing points may be points having an intermediate value among points in the object at which the radio wave energy is focused to exceed a certain threshold value.

The operation of, by the processor, calculating the second focusing parameter may further include: calculating a parameter having a reverse phase of the radio wave energy focused at the unnecessary focusing points; and combining the first focusing parameter and the parameter having the reverse phase.

The parameter having the reverse phase at the unnecessary focusing points may be orthogonal to an electromagnetic characteristic value at the focusing target point.

According to the present disclosure, in a method and apparatus for focusing radio wave energy, which removes an unnecessary focusing point, when high-density radio wave energy is transmitted to a focusing target point, it is possible to prevent radio waves from being focused in an unwanted area and efficiently focus the radio wave energy at the focusing target point. In particular, it is possible to solve problems in which, in an existing method and apparatus for focusing radio wave energy, since energy may be focused in an undesired area, an additional heat detecting device and cooling device are required or a monitoring process by medical personnel is required, and it is possible to enable high-efficiency radio wave energy to be focused at a target point without increasing system complexity.

In addition, the present disclosure is technology for radiating radio waves by calculating a focusing parameter in which radio waves are focused at points other than a target point through a process of optimizing a focusing parameter and thus is applicable not only to heat treatment using radio waves but also to various radio wave energy transmitting apparatuses.

In particular, according to the present disclosure, radio waves are prevented from being focused anywhere other than a desired position to prevent the occurrence of a problem in which, during non-invasive radio wave energy heat treatment on a living body, heat is applied to a normal area other than a lesion and adversely affects the normal area. Thus, it is possible to construct a system for focusing radio waves, which prevents a rise of a temperature of an undesired area without causing system complexity, thereby obtaining an effect in which safe heat treatment is possible without a problem in which a normal area other than a lesion area is destroyed by heat.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are disclosed herein. However, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are merely representative for purposes of describing embodiments of the present disclosure. Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to embodiments of the present disclosure set forth herein.

Accordingly, while the present disclosure is capable of various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit the present disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the present disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description of the figures.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

In exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, “at least one of A and B” may refer to “at least one of A or B” or “at least one of combinations of one or more of A and B”. In addition, “one or more of A and B” may refer to “one or more of A or B” or “one or more of combinations of one or more of A and B”.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (i.e., “between” versus “directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.).

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes” and/or “including,” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this present disclosure belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Hereinafter, preferred exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In describing the present disclosure, in order to facilitate an overall understanding, the same reference numerals are used for the same elements in the drawings, and duplicate descriptions for the same elements are omitted.

is a block diagram of an apparatus for focusing radio wave energy according to one example embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to, the apparatus for focusing radio wave energy, which removes an unnecessary focusing point, includes an image processing module, a calculation module, a high-power radio wave generating module, and a radio wave radiation module.

The image processing modulemay receive an external image to generate an electromagnetic numerical model. Here, the image may be an internal tomography image of an object, such as a medical image captured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or the like. The image processing modulemay generate an electromagnetic numerical model enabling electromagnetic analysis of the objectin addition to electromagnetic characteristics of an internal medium thereof based on the received image.

The calculation modulemay calculate a focusing parameter, in which radio waves are focused inside the object, based on the electromagnetic numerical model received from the image processing module. In addition to the electromagnetic numerical model received from the image processing module, the calculation modulemay receive characteristic information of radiated radio waves.

The high-power radio wave generating modulemay receive the focusing parameter calculated by the calculation moduleto adjust the radio wave radiation moduleto radiate radio waves. The radio wave radiation modulemay include one or more radio wave radiation elementsto. In the radio wave radiation module, the radio wave radiation elementstomay be disposed in a form which surrounds the object, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

The apparatus for focusing radio wave energy may further include a control module. The control modulemay control the image processing module, the calculation module, the high-power radio wave generating module, and the radio wave radiation module.

shows conceptual diagrams of a method of removing an unnecessary focusing point according to one example embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to, when an existing apparatus for focusing radio wave energy focuses radio waves at a focusing target point, an unnecessary focusing point, which is a point other than the focusing target pointat which radio wave energy is focused, may be generated.